The present invention relates to the field of vehicle devices, and, more particularly, to a tracking and alerting system for a vehicle.
Motor vehicles, such as passenger cars, trucks, busses, fleet vehicles, etc. are widely used and knowing the locations of such vehicles is often desired. For example, should a vehicle be stolen, it would be beneficial to know the vehicle""s location so that authorities could be promptly and accurately directed to retrieve the vehicle. Indeed, the tracking system could plot the getaway path of the thief.
For a company with hired drivers, it may be desirable to know the driver""s whereabouts during the course of the day. Similarly, a rental car agency or other fleet operator, for example, may wish to know the whereabouts of its fleet of vehicles.
It may also be desirable to track the location of a vehicle as it is used throughout the course of a normal day. For parents of younger or older drivers, for example, knowledge of the vehicle""s location may provide some assurance that the driver is at designated locations and following a prescribed route.
A number of patents disclose various systems and approaches to tracking vehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,844 discloses a tracking system including a control center and a mobile unit installed in the vehicle. The mobile unit may send security warnings to the command center via a wireless transceiver. Position information for the vehicle is determined using a GPS receiver at the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,043 discloses a similar system which may send one or more preprogrammed telephone messages to a user when away from the vehicle. The user may remotely access location information or cause certain commands to be carried out by entering a personal identification number (PIN).
The widespread availability and use of the Internet has prompted a number of vehicle tracking systems to also make use of the Internet. For example, TelEvoke, Inc. proposed such a system in combination with Clifford Electronics. The system was to provide notification, control and tracking services via the telephone or the Internet. Users could be notified via phone, e-mail, or pager of events such as a car alarm being triggered. Users could control the vehicle remote devices via phone, web, or PDA such as unlocking car doors. Additionally, users could track TelEvoke-enabled vehicles on the Internet or via the telephone. An Internet map could be viewed by the user showing the actual and prior vehicle locations. TelEvoke offered its services via a centralized fully automated Network Operations Center. To reduce the communications costs, it was proposed to use the control channel of the cellular telephone network.
Many conventional tracking units determine vehicle position information on a periodic basis. Accordingly, a relatively large amount of position information may be accumulated. This information may be either stored in memory and downloaded later to a central monitoring station, or the information may be downloaded continuously. In any event, a relatively large amount of communications time may be consumed passing the information to the central monitoring station. In addition, large memory requirements at the vehicle or the monitoring station may add considerable expense to the system.
In view of the foregoing background, it is therefore an object of the invention to provide a vehicle tracking system and associated methods wherein the memory requirements for the tracking unit are reduced and/or wherein the amount of information to be transmitted to track the vehicle is reduced.
This and other objects, features and advantages in accordance with the present invention are provided by a vehicle tracking system including a vehicle tracking unit and a monitoring station communicating therewith. The vehicle tracking unit may include a vehicle position determining device, a wireless communications device, and a controller cooperating with the wireless communications device and the vehicle position determining device. More particularly, the controller may determine the vehicle position information including a vehicle location and an associated stationary period for each occurrence of the vehicle remaining stationary for greater than a predetermined period.
In one embodiment, the controller may cooperate with the wireless transmission device to send the vehicle position information to the monitoring station based upon each occurrence of the vehicle remaining stationary for greater than the predetermined period. In this embodiment, the monitoring station may associate a time with each occurrence of the vehicle remaining stationary for greater than the predetermined period.
In another embodiment, the controller cooperates with the wireless transmission device to send the vehicle position information to the monitoring station for a plurality of occurrences of the vehicle remaining stationary for greater than the predetermined period. In this embodiment, the controller may associate a time with each occurrence of the vehicle remaining stationary for greater than the predetermined period. For example, the predetermined time may be less than about three minutes which filters out stops in normal traffic, but which will keep track of stops where the driver likely leaves the vehicle. Accordingly, only the important information necessary to track the vehicle need be stored and/or transmitted thereby reducing the system costs.
The controller may comprise a memory for storing the vehicle position information therein. In one configuration, the controller downloads the vehicle position information from the memory to the monitoring station based upon a predetermined schedule. In another configuration, the controller downloads the vehicle position information from the memory to the monitoring station based upon a predetermined event. In yet another configuration, the controller downloads the vehicle position information from the memory to the monitoring station based upon a predetermined percentage of memory usage.
The vehicle position determining device may comprise a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. The wireless communications device may comprise a cellular telephone communications device, such as operating over the control channel. The monitoring station may includes a user interface, such as an Internet interface, and/or a telephone network interface.
A method aspect of the invention is for operating a vehicle tracking unit comprising a vehicle position determining device, and a wireless communications device. The method may include determining the vehicle position information including a vehicle location and an associated stationary period for each occurrence of the vehicle remaining stationary for greater than a predetermined period. This may be sent each time or after a plurality of such occurrences.